


Fate is a funny thing

by idiotwithdreams



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Humor, Arranged Marriage, First Meetings, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-05-11
Packaged: 2020-02-29 22:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18787777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotwithdreams/pseuds/idiotwithdreams
Summary: Pushed into an arranged marriage with a dumb, military Captain, Tony Stark walks into a bar hoping to have one last hurrah, the night before his wedding.Good thing a tall, blonde, dimpled, comic artist named Grant, is present to keep him company through his last night.





	Fate is a funny thing

He was on his fourth glass of whiskey when he spotted him. Young. Tall. Blonde. Muscular. Very much Adonis like and perfect for what Tony had in mind. For this was his one last hurrah, one last night of freedom before he was married forever, to some nameless, goody two shoes, pretty boy with two brain cells for following orders and keeping Tony in line in public. Ugh.

 

_You listen to me, boy and you listen carefully. You will marry Steve Rogers and that's the end of story. I think you've spent enough time tinkering away in that god awful lab of yours with your stupid malfunctioning bots and drinking and fucking into oblivion He's a highly ranking officer in the army, he will be great for cleaning up that disgusting public image of yours and he will bring us all the military contracts we want with the army. A toe out of line and you can kiss SI, your inheritance and your beloved bots goodbye. Don't try me, boy._

 

_Oh Tony! It's not so bad. Your father has your best interests at heart and Captain Rogers really is a gentleman. He likes art and social work. I think you will really like him. He was exceptionally nice and absolutely perfect, he even addressed me as Ma'am all the time when I spoke to him on the phone, even though I told him several times to call me Maria, since we are going to be family soon and he even asked after my charities and......_

 

Ugh. Fuck Howard and his stupid ideas. He had callously signed away Tony's life to some dumb boy scout all for his military contracts. As though Tony's genius hadn't been the only reason he was been getting any. Howard himself hadn't been responsible for the R&D at SI for a long time now, too busy drinking himself to death and stumbling around in a stupor, falling into bed with women old enough to be his daughters. All their inventions, all their weapons, it was all Tony.

Tony couldn't wait until he inherited SI. He had plans for it. Plans that were leaps and bounds ahead of what Howard had in his vision for SI. It was why he had agreed to this marriage contract at all. Howard had agreed to pass SI onto Tony, provided he was married and his public image was cleaned up first. 

 

All of this had led to this night, the night before his wedding, which had left Tony sitting in a bar with Rhodey, sipping whiskey together, looking for his one last act of defiance before the marriage, because for all that Tony's public image of being an easy lay screamed, cheating was not a line he would ever cross. Hence, the one last hurrah before he was bound forever.

 

"Hey, find anyone interesting?", Rhodey asked as he watched Tony's attention wander away in the midst of one of his favorite MIT stories.

"Huh, so that's what distracting you. Wondered why you didn't curse Benjamin out when I mentioned his name. Guess pretty blondes are much more interesting, huh?"

 

"Aw, platypus. Are you jealous? You know you're my number one man" Tony laughed, before glancing back at the blonde again.

 

"So, you gonna go to him or what?" , Rhodey asked, tilting his head towards the blonde who gave a full body laugh as the hot red head next to him narrated a story.

As Tony watched, the girl happened to glance up and caught him staring at her friend. Tony gave a slight smile as the girl whispered something to her friend who then met Tony's eyes and gave a shy smile.

"Fuck, he has dimples. Oh god, Rhodey, he's perfect." Tony sighed as he turned back to his friend.

For the next hour or so, Tony couldn't help but let his eyes stray to the blonde who kept exchanging shy and encouraging smiles with him. 

 

"Okay, Tones. I'm calling it a night. Go, get your man. Stay safe and remember, I'll be picking you up at sharp 8 tomorrow morning. I ain't gonna have you reach the church late and fail in my duties as a best man just because of Dimples over there!" and with that, Rhodey was gone, leaving Tony free to approach Dimples.

 

When Tony reached the table, the red head gave him a once-over and a smirk that left him feeling like she was privy to a secret only known to her and kissed her friend goodbye, leaving Tony alone with the man.

 

The man smiled at Tony as Tony slid into the booth opposite to him.

"Hey, I'm Grant. What's your name?" , asked Dimples (HIS NAME IS GRANT! Tony's mind helpfully screamed at him)

"Edward."

"Edward huh? Bit of an old fashioned name, don't you think?" , remarked Grant with a smile.

"Guess both of our parents' were obsessed with the 1900s huh." Tony said, startling a laugh out of Grant.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't believe. My mom made sure I used to dress up as a nice little boy from the 1940 until I passed out of high school." Grant admitted with a sheepish smile.

"Oh my god, really? You would have made an adorable boy scout, bet no one would have been able to refuse those puppy eyes." Tony's words led to a slow blush spread across Grant's cheeks.

 "So, what do you do now, adorable former boy scout?" Tony asked with a teasing smile.

"Oh um, I'm an artist.", Grant admitted, his cheeks still quite warm. It made Tony want to reach up and bite those perfect dimples and whisper sweet nothings in his ear to see how far the blush would go.

"Really? Anything I've seen? Although to be fair I'm not the best judge of art. Most of it goes right over my head. One of my best friends is an expert on art and has forever advised me to stay away from galleries for both my own and the public's sensibilities."

Grant laughed and said, "Your friend sounds like a smart woman. Nah, you probably haven't seen. I'm pretty small time artist, some freelance work for the Avengers comics and the like. So, what do you do?"

"Engineer at your service. Anything from robots to artificial intelligence, security systems, clean energy, you name it."

"Oh wow, that sounds amazing. I wish I did anything half as cool as that."

"Oh I don't know about that, getting to write about superheroes running around in tights sounds pretty cool."

 

They chatted away until it was time for the bar to close. They stood outside the exit, neither willing to say goodbye, when Tony decided to make his move. He leaned in close and whispered in Grant's ear, "So, how about we extend this night a little longer and have some fun?" to which Grant readily agreed with a rather pretty blush.

 

They walked a block to the hotel Tony had chosen for the night and made their way up to the suite. As soon as they were inside, Tony pushed Grant up against the door and kissed him thoroughly. Grant ran his hands over Tony while Tony left a pretty little line of hickeys across his neck. As they moved things further, Grant quietly confessed that he didn't have much experience and was in fact, a virgin. Tony quietly groaned at the perfect, untouched man, all ready and waiting for him and vowed to make it the best night he could. The rest of the night was lost in a blur of discarded clothes, exploring fingers and pretty noises.

 

Come morning, Tony left Grant sleeping under the sheets, kissed him goodbye and quietly slipped out of the room. He made his way back to the mansion by five and fell asleep, dreaming about what ifs and if onlys, starring the pretty blonde from the previous night.

 

 

"You've got to be kidding me! It is quarter to eight and you're still in bed. What the fuck, Tones? You need to move it. Up, up up!"

"Unggggh you need to calm down, platypus. I'll just take two secs." Tony said as he grumpily moved away from the bed and made his way towards the shower.

"You were supposed to be dressed by 7:30 and we were supposed to be moving towards the church by now, have you no respect for my schedules?"

"Oh I'm sorry, did me taking a nap before signing off my life to a total stranger get in the way of your precious schedule?" Tony bit back irritably as he stumbled through a shower and changed into his tux.

 

They made their way to the chapel where one Steven Rogers was waiting for Tony to make his way to the altar.

"Oh fuck! Rhodeeeey." Tony hissed and clutched Rhodey's elbow as he saw exactly who was waiting for him at the end of the aisle.

"Wait, isn't that Dimples from last night? Wow, only you could manage to sleep with your to be husband and mistake him for a one night stand. How did you not recognize him, man? This is new even for you." , Rhodey exclaimed gleefully.

"It's not like Howard let me meet him or see him beforehand. He was so sure I would manage to drive him away and break his precious contract with the military. Ugh, this is a disaster." Tony groaned.

"Explain to me how exactly this is a disaster after you spent the ride over here mooning forlornly over Dimples and the perfect night you had."

"Well, don't you see? I bet this was all planned by him. I bet he knew who I was all along and just wanted to make fun of me so he could start this marriage off with a dominant hand."

"Come on man, are you listening to yourself? A decorated captain, who apparently is one of the nicest guys out there, made up a fake identity, stalked you to find out exactly which bar you would end up in the night before your marriage and then proceeded to make amazing conversation, charm you and sleep with you, all just to make fun of you?" Rhodey exclaimed disbelievingly.

"Well, it sounds stupid when you say it. I don't know, how else would you explain it?" Tony bit out.

"How about asking your future husband over there before he comes over here wondering why exactly you're freaking out at the entrance of the aisle?"

 

Tony carefully made his way to the altar where a surprised looking Rogers gazed at him. The minister rambled on but it all passed in a blur. They said the right words at the right places and then it was time for the knot to be sealed with a kiss. Rogers leaned in, his eyes like clear blue crystals and gently pressed his lips to Tony's. 

 

The moment they could get away, Tony dragged Steve to an empty hallway.

"So Grant, is it? Fancy meeting you here."

"Edward. Missed you this morning."

"Had to leave in hurry. Had to make my way to my dumb husband. So, was everything a lie, did your stupid plan work out perfectly or what?" , Tony angrily retorted.

"What plan? I had no idea it was you. And what are you talking about? You lied too. Here I was desperately wishing I could see you again after you slipped out in the morning, and little did I know that it was all just a stupid lie. How could you not have known it was me? Was it fun, making fun of the poor, old, virgin?" , Rogers snapped.

"Everything I told you but my name was the truth. And the answer to your question is that Howard wouldn't let me. He was afraid I would drive you way with my stupid antics. But what excuse do you have? Not like you asked to meet me or couldn't have found out anything about me if you wanted."

"Right. I asked, Tony. I asked. Several times in fact. Each time I was told that you were not interested in meeting me. The army was coercing me to go through with this marriage anyway and you didn't even want to see me. So I thought fine, just fine. If you weren't interested in getting to know me, I wasn't either. So I carefully blocked out everything about you and look how that ended. How was I supposed to know that you would end up at the very bar I was drowning my sorrows at?"

"I told you, Howard wouldn't let me. He must have lied to you too."

"What are the odds though, that we would both end up in the same place though?" Tony muttered quietly.

"Well, I don't know what to call it except for fate. Here I was wishing for the same thing that just happened." Steve said with a small smile, his eyes deep and earnest.

"Maybe we should start again, my name is Tony, I love my work and my bots and I met an amazing stranger last night that I would love to get to know more." 

Steve blushed fetchingly at the words and whispered, "Hi, my name is Steve. I am a Captain in the army and a part time comic book artist in my down time. I hate that I was pushed into this thing but I'm glad for it because it brought me to you."

Tony grinned at these words and carefully threaded his fingers in Steve's hair and pulled him down for a ravishing kiss and whispered against his lips, "Hi Steve, I think we're going to get along very well."

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so this is my first ever fic. I've been a part of this fandom since years but have never really posted anything and decided to take the plunge during some downtime.  
> So let me know what you think about it in the comments below and any suggestions you may have as well.  
> Thanks!


End file.
